7 Responses

Being a massive fan of Italian cinema from this time period, I am ashamed to admit I have still not seen a single Argento film, despite me knowing the works of Fulci, Martino, Mattei and the like fairly well. As a side note, whats with the lack of comments here? People just can’t handle the true power of Italian insanity? The fools.

I love it when you do a podcast with Sean simply because you’re covering a movie I either love or have an interest in seeing. No offense intended to your mother, sisters or any of the other guest hosts but whenever you and Sean do a movie I inevitably end up tracking the film down or watching something similar.

I love Italian horror films. If you go through some other giallo films, I’d suggest watching Fulci’s House by the Cemetery or The Beyond, Bava’s Bay of Blood or Black Sunday, and if you’re willing to watch Argento again I’d say go with Opera or Inferno. I don’t believe either of the Argento film’s are among his best, but I find them some of his most interesting ones and I’d love to hear your opinions on those in particular.

Paul, re-listening to you and Sean’s DEEP RED podcast – with the hindsight between listens of having bought and watched the Blue Underground Blu-Ray. The PROFUNDO RUSSO version makes it clearer that Marcus and Gianna are, in fact, having an affair: There’s a brief dialogue scene where Marcus comes out of a bathroom while she’s talking to him while putting his shirt back on; they end an argument later parked in front of her apartment building with her saying “You want to come up?”, him saying “Sure”, and then both comically struggle to get out the sun roof of her car; and right before the climax Marcus decides to move to Morocco, and he invites Gianna to come live with him there, which she joyfully accepts. While there’s no even television-level sex or make-out scenes, it’s clear Marcus is sleeping with her, and part of her later attitude is her insecurity about how serious he is about her – which makes Gianna’s character a bit more appealing, and Marcus’s repeated tagging her for detective-stuff more of a couple’s thing.

The longer version also shows the Roman police, while not exactly incompetent, are more concerned with lunch breaks and press conferences than with crime-solving. I’ll need to re-watch again, but I think there’s even offhand references to a municipal strike which includes much of the police force, which is why Marcus and Gianna are pretty much left to their own devices!